6 Ways to Find Threaded Comments in Microsoft Excel

Are you thinking about how to find threaded comments in Excel 365 or earlier modern Excel editions? Keep reading!

Finding modern comments in Excel can feel like navigating through a maze without a map. Just as a project manager struggles to locate critical feedback buried in long email threads, Excel users can also find themselves lost when searching for specific comments in a busy workbook.

This task might seem challenging when you’re under pressure when you must quickly analyze and visualize data. In this Microsoft Excel tutorial, I have simplified the process in specialized methods of different use cases and their quick steps. Let’s get started!

Find Comments Through Indicators

Threaded comment indicator in Excel 365
Threaded comment indicator in Excel 365

The default way to identify threaded comments in a worksheet is by locating the small five-sided purple shape in the upper-right corner of the cells that contain such comments.

When the comment is still open for discussion, it’ll show a purple shade.

Resolved threaded comment in Excel 365
Resolved threaded comments in Excel 365

However, when you resolve the threaded comment, it turns into a dark five-sided shape.

So, when you hover over such a cell that contains the above-mentioned indicators, you can easily locate the comments you’ve been looking for.

Using the Excel Options Tool

Sometimes, you might not see these comment indicators in your workbook. It doesn’t mean the worksheets in the Excel file don’t contain threaded comments.

Default comment setting show indicators
The default comment setting shows indicators

According to the default setting, Excel will always show the comment indicators so you can easily find a comment by hovering the cursor over the indicator.

However, if a shared workbook is too busy with many comments and replies, some worksheets can become too cluttered, burying the actual content, which is datasets.

Worksheet has comments but no indicators
The worksheet has comments but no indicators

To avoid such visibility issues, Microsoft allows you to modify the way an Excel workbook shows the comment indicators. Such customizations are available in the Excel Options dialog box.

Excel Options
Excel Options

If you believe a workbook has comments in its worksheets but can’t see them it’s likely that the comments are hidden.

Press Alt + F + T on the source worksheet to open the Excel Options dialog box.

Click on the Advanced category in the left-side navigation panel.

Scroll down the list of sections and checkboxes on the right side until you reach the Display section.

Below the Display section, select the option that says Indicators only, and comments and notes on hover.

Click OK to save and apply the Display changes.

You’ll now see the default comment indicators.

This feature is however unavailable in Excel Android and iOS apps. There, comment indicators are always visible irrespective of the setting configured in Excel Options dialog box.

Using the Comments Button in the Toolbar

All of the latest Excel editions, like Excel for Microsoft 365 Windows, Excel for Mac, and Excel on the web now include a Comments button in the top right corner, below the Window Restore Down icon.

Comments button in Excel 365
Comments button in Excel 365

Click on the Comments button to open the Comments sidebar on the right side.

Comments sidebar shortcut key
Comments sidebar shortcut key

Alternatively, you can press Alt + Z + C to activate the Comments navigation panel.

Using the Review Tab

The default location of comments and notes in Excel is the Review tab. If your Excel desktop edition supports threaded comments, those should be available for review from this tab.

Next Comment command
Next Comment command

Go to the source worksheet that has comments and click on the Review tab.

Find the Comments block.

Click on the Next Comment button to cycle through comments in the worksheet one after another.

Show Comments command
Show Comments command

To view all the comments at once click on the Show Comments command.

The Comments sidebar will show up from the right side.

Page Setup extension
Page Setup extension

If you wish to print the threaded comments along with the dataset, go to the Page Layout tab and click on the tiny down arrow in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup block.

Page Setup dialog box
Page Setup dialog box

The Page Setup dialog box will open.

Go to the Sheet tab, click on the Comments and notes drop-down menu, and select the At end of sheet option.

When you activate this print setting in Excel, all comments within the print area will be included at the bottom of the final page(s) whenever you print a worksheet.

Using the Find and Replace Tool

You can also use the Find and Replace tool to find specific content in threaded comments in an Excel worksheet.

Suppose, you simply want to find out if a specific word or value is available in one or more comments in an Excel worksheet.

Find and Replace
Find and Replace

Navigate to the source sheet and press the Ctrl + F keys to bring up the Find and Replace tool.

Set up Find and Replace tool
Set up the Find and Replace tool

Enter the content you want to look up in the comments into the Find what field.

Click on the Look in drop-down arrow and select Comments.

Find All button
Find All button

Hit the Find All button to discover which cells have a comment that also mentions the searched keyword or value.

Using an Excel VBA Macro

If you need to find threaded comments in more than one Excel workbook and worksheets it’s better to automate the task with a simple VBA macro. Setting up a macro is easier than ever if you follow the instructions I’ve outlined below.

There are essentially two steps. First, you learn how to set up a VBA macro using a VBA script by going through this effortless guide:

📒 Read More: How To Use The VBA Code You Find Online

Now, create a macro using the following script. It’ll force Excel to show all threaded comments in all worksheets in one click.

VBA Script
VBA Script
Sub CreateCommentsIndex()
    Dim ws As Worksheet, outputSheet As Worksheet, cmt As CommentThreaded
    Dim rowIndex As Long

    On Error Resume Next
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False
    Worksheets("Comments").Delete
    Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    On Error GoTo 0

    Set outputSheet = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
    outputSheet.Name = "Comments"
    outputSheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Sheet Name"
    outputSheet.Cells(1, 2).Value = "Cell Address"
    outputSheet.Cells(1, 3).Value = "Comment Text"

    rowIndex = 2
    For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
        For Each cmt In ws.CommentsThreaded
            outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 1).Value = ws.Name
            outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 2).Value = cmt.Parent.Address
            outputSheet.Cells(rowIndex, 3).Value = cmt.Text
            rowIndex = rowIndex + 1
        Next cmt
    Next ws

    If rowIndex = 2 Then outputSheet.Delete Else MsgBox "Comments indexed in 'Comments' sheet."
End Sub
Macro dialog box
Macro dialog box

Once the macro is ready, press Alt + F8 to launch the Macro dialog box.

There, select the CreateCommentsIndex macro and hit Run.

Created a comments index in Excel
Created a comments index in Excel

The VBA macro will work in the background to create a new worksheet named Comments and place it at the first position on the Sheet tab row for ease of access.

You can go to the Comments worksheet and find an index of threaded comments showing cell addresses, sheet names, and comment texts.

📚 Read more: You’ll also want to check out these Microsoft Excel tutorials if you’ve liked this guide:

Conclusions

Now you know how to find threaded comments in Excel 365 and earlier editions that support this modern commenting system.

Which one do you prefer from the range of approaches outlined above in this guide? Do you know of a better technique that I might have missed to explain? Share your replies in the comment box below.

About the Author

Tamal Das

Tamal Das

I'm a freelance writer at HowToExcel.org. After completing my MS in Science, I joined reputed IT consultancy companies to acquire hands-on knowledge of data analysis and data visualization techniques as a business analyst. Now, I'm a professional freelance content writer for everything Excel and its advanced support tools, like Power Pivot, Power Query, Office Scripts, and Excel VBA. I published many tutorials and how-to articles on Excel for sites like MakeUseOf, AddictiveTips, OnSheets, Technipages, and AppleToolBox. In weekends, I perform in-depth web search to learn the latest tricks and tips of Excel so I can write on these in the weekdays!

Related Posts

Comments

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Get the Latest Microsoft Excel Tips

Follow Us

Follow us to stay up to date with the latest in Microsoft Excel!

Subscribe for awesome Microsoft Excel videos 😃